Let’s call it the Rebel Girls effect. The enormous appetite for Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s first collection of illustrated tales about mighty, real-life women, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, sparked a publishing revolution in 2016, shaking up how biography is presented to children. Out went the dusty textbook tone in favour of a bright and fresh style. Almost a decade on, kids’ bookshelves heave with lively, true tales – from the bestselling Little People, Big Dreams series to the excellent picture book version of David Olusoga’s Black and British.
Yet, thrillingly, the innovations keep coming. Dear Vincent (Thames & Hudson), by art historian Michael Bird and illustrator Ella Beech, draws on correspondence between Vincent van Gogh and his loving brother Theo to offer, Bird says, a “glimpse into a happy and creative time in the artist’s life” when he moved to southern France – told via snippets of letters and the very relatable closeness of the two brothers.
